VisitBritain and Tencent have teamed up to boost China-UK tourism

VisitBritain has teamed up with Chinese technology company Tencent to inspire Chinese tourists to hop on a plane to the UK.

View of the headquarters of Tencent in Shenzhen city, south China's Guangdong province, 4 December 2017. [Photo: IC]

As part of their efforts, they have produced a 3D racing game that takes users all over the UK to give people a taste of what they can expect from a holiday here.

There are two tracks to race on, British Castles which takes racers around Windsor Castles and other notable castles, and also the North Sea Fishery route which showcases the classic British seaside villages.

Patricia Yates, Director of VisitBritain, said: “China is the world’s most valuable outbound market and we want Britain to be the destination of choice for Chinese travellers.  

“Our collaboration with Tencent’s QQ Speed is a great opportunity to tap into a new audience of millions in China, inspiring visitors to book a trip right now to explore more of our nations and regions.”

Last year over 300,000 Chinese tourists came to Britain which is a massive 29% increase on the previous year.

The first half of 2018 saw over 100,000 tourists travelling to the UK during which time they spend over £2000.

Xinglun Liu, Marketing Director of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group, said: “The collaboration with VisitBritain and QQ Speed is an affirmation of its influence among young adults.

“As the most popular racing game both on PC and mobile in China, we hope to help more people understand and learn about different cultures through gaming.”

This isn’t the first time that UK-China tourism has been the focus of a campaign to improve the link.

Ctrip, Asia’s largest travel agent, announced that it would be using artificial intelligence to promote China-UK tourism.

Jane Sun, Chief Executive Officer at Ctrip, said, “Ctrip is strongly committed to making heavy investment in A- Artificial Intelligence, B- Big Data, C- Cloud Computing and using technology to promote China-UK tourism to promote international cultural exchange and global peace.”